Hartley & Armand (Part One)
First comes the verse, laying down the foundation upon which the song spins it's tale. Next comes the bridge that allows all who hear to follow along with the rhythm that may be slowly building. And then comes the chorus, the beautiful crescendo when you reach the peak of the mountain. I was lost in the bold beating of the drums, their tribal force ebbing through me. The low bass riff that thrummed in my ears that kept me calm. The electric guitar that pulled at the strings of my heart. But it was the voice that grasped at my attention and left me nearly swaying as I followed the words. This would be the song that I would sing tonight. I must imprint the words into my mind. Even though it was only karaoke night, I wanted to lose myself truly in the music and you can't do it properly when you're too focused on what the words are. When you don't really feel them.
Soft tiny whiskers brushed against the palm of my hand that was shoved into the pocket of my green hoodie for warmth. The whiskers were followed by a tiny clawed hand that lightly grasped the crook of my finger. I could feel tiny breaths against my hand and one more tiny clawed hand being placed onto my palm. My hand raised slightly, just enough to wrap around the small warm furry body that lay in my pocket. I took care to cup the bottom of the rat's body to keep it comfortable and calm. As I lifted him from my pocket, he wrapped his long tail around my wrist. I held him to my chest for a moment, offering soft pets behind his oval ears. His dark eyes stared up at me, his nose and whiskers twitching softly as he sniffed up at me.
"What is it, Axel? Hungry again?", I asked of my rat. The rat's only answer was to jump from the palm of my hand to climb up my chest to come rest upon my shoulder. His nose tickling my ear and neck as he sniffed and his tail whipped around softly. Axel, in his ministrations, managed to pull out one of the earbuds that blared music still.
Suddenly I could once more hear all the ambient noise of the little bar. Clinking of glasses and mugs. Soft chatter amongst the veterans of the bar. Classic rock playing from a speaker somewhere. The place wasn't that bad, really. The veterans were nice enough people and the owners went to decent lengths to keep people coming back. One of their ploys was karaoke night. The only reason I sat at this table against the wall. I looked at the small makeshift stage that lined the back wall of the bar. Some nights local musicians would set up their amplifiers and pianos. But tonight, it was all about the singers. They hadn't yet pulled out the small machine and mic to begin the event, so here I sat, with my friend, Axel the rat. Axel didn't care much for the loud noises or the bright light, but he did care about the little snacks I would offer.
Laying on the small polished table in front of me was a small opened bag of Cheez-its, Axel's favorite snack. My fingers slid towards the bag, the tips making a soft rustling noise against the material of the bag. Axel jumped, having heard the all too familiar noise that he associated with treats shot down my shoulder and arm onto the table. He nearly galloped right into the bag face first to grab one little square. Then back up my arm he ran to my shoulder, where he devoured the little square, eating the corner's first. His soft crunching could barely be heard as a group of people entered the bar.
It was a small group, perhaps no more than four people. Two of them were young girls, perhaps just old enough to flaunt their new ID's at the bartender and hear the older veterans woo and flirt to see what they have under their shirts. The other two were males. One seemed to be about my age, early twenties at most. He was a decent height with short tame blond hair and steel blue eyes. The other was a shorter and younger guy. He had very untamed yet all too touchable auburn curls that framed his pale face. He seemed too young to be here, yet he walked with such relaxed confidence. He wore a form fitting black South Korean style jacket and faded jeans. He talked softly to the two girls, though his eyes seemed to be scanning the bar slowly. When his large amber eyes locked onto mine, I nervously looked down at the table.
The polished finish on the table before me offered my reflection. My short brown hair was unkempt and underneath my blue eyes I could make out the soft blush that was spread across my face; my green hoodie only adding a wonderfully embarrassing festive color scheme to my form. There wasn't any way this guy would be into someone like me, especially with the two floozies fluttering around him. Hell, maybe all three were a part of his harem.
My foot was tapping nervously as I fought the temptation to take another quick glance up at him. I focused on the soft crunching noises Axel made as he finished his snack and cleaned his whiskers and muzzle. I took a deep breath and looked up to see the group standing along the bar. The two girls were giving their drink orders to the bartender and the man with the light blond hair was sitting on a bar stool next to one of the girls, looking almost nervous. The beautiful one was leaning his back against the bar counter, his elbows on top of the counter as he looked around the bar once more. I felt my heart nearly stop beating when once again our eyes met. This time I couldn't immediately look away. Something kept my eyes locked onto his for what felt like a long moment. My palms began to sweat as I saw him smirk at me before he turned back to speak to one of the girls. The girl turned, but instead of looking at me, she looked over at the small stage off to the side.
One of the employees of the bar was pulling the small karaoke machine and mic stand to the center stage. He hooked up the mic and gave it a few test taps to make sure it was working properly. He turned to hook up the machine and stepped off stage to dim the lights in the bar and brighten the lights around the stage.
Before he could even announce the start of the karaoke, one of the girls that came with the heart throb pranced on stage. She already looked pretty tipsy and nearly tipped forward as she scanned through the song list. Even though she wasn't near the microphone, I'm sure everyone in the bar could hear her giggling as she took a moment to find something that pleased her. The other girl had made her way over towards the stage, drink in hand, and not too far behind her was the blond man. He took a seat near the stage, but didn't really seem to care about the girl that staggered up to the mic or the one that drunkenly cheered her on. He had turned around, looking past me, back to the bar and called out.
"Armand, do we really have to sit through this?", the blond man called out to the auburn haired man. The two girls protested his remark with a slurry of faint hearted curses as the auburn haired man came forth smiling and almost giggling.
"Yes, Daniel. I'm afraid we promised our dates a good time, didn't we?", he said, chuckling and placing a hand on the blond man's shoulder sympathetically. The girl on stage began her song, which was the closet the machine had to one of the many top 40 hit pop songs, though which one was completely lost on me as the beat was the same one from many songs and the girl was far too gone to talk properly, let alone sing. Many patrons of the bar began to grumble and one of the more rowdy ones even booed her. But she didn't even seem to notice, continuing the song with a big cheesy grin plastered on her face.
As the song was beginning to end, I stood from my place at the table and carefully reached for Axel, tucking him away in my pocket once more, offering him two more little cheese squares for him while he lay in his hiding spot. I slowly made my way over to the side of the stage, taking my place as the next singer in line, not that there was anyone else rushing over to sing tonight. As I stood next to the stage, I caught eyes with the auburn haired man, Armand, again. He was walked up to the stage and offered me a warm smile as he passed me to step up and help the inebriated girl leave the stage. He left a trail of a warm cinnamon fragrance as he walked by that almost made me want to follow the trail, but the allure of the microphone was too great.
I took to the stage and a few of the bar patrons applauded, a few familiar faces in the crowd recognized me from previous nights. I smiled nervously at them and offered a little wave before I turned to scan through the songs. I already knew which one to do tonight first. It was still early in the night, and these patrons loved their classic rock. Tonight's first choice was gonna be a fun one for me, Rainbow in the Dark. As soon as I selected the song, the speakers blared with the strong beating drums and demanding electric guitars. More applause erupted around the bar. I looked down to see the small group still huddled near the front of the stage, Daniel even offering a small clap himself. I took a deep breath and began to sing.
When there's lightening, you know it always brings me down,
cause it's free and I see that its me thats lost and never found
I cry out for magic, I feel it dancing in the light
it was cold, lost my home to the shadows of the night
no sign of the morning coming, you've been left on your own,
like a rainbow in the dark.
I was lost in the bravado I brought to the song, my eyes were closed during the verses as I recited them in beat with the music that flowing around me. My eyes opened once I hit the chorus and noticed that Armand had edged a little closer to the front of the stage, watching me. He had a slight smile on his lips and I could see the amber hue of his eyes from up on the stage. I found myself still looking at him as I began the second verse.
Do your demons, do they ever let you go?
When you try to be high deep inside, is it someone that you know?
You're just a picture, you're an image caught in time.
We're a lie, you and I, we're words without a rhyme.
He was smiling a little more now and nodding his head a bit in time with the song. I let my eyes close once more as I took a few deep breaths and finished the song. I received more applause from nearly everyone in the bar after the song was over and I gave them a big bow. The heavy rock song left my throat feeling a little dry and I left the stage to get a quick drink of water.
I nearly gulped down the glass of cold water the bartender slid to me, but before I could down the whole glass I heard a voice behind me.
"You have a wonderful singing voice".
I turned around to see Armand, the auburn haired man standing behind me. Now being closer to him, I saw that I was nearly taller than him and I was inhaling his wonderful scent.
"Thank you, I'm usually here every week for this night...I'm also in the local theater", I spouted. I felt like I was fumbling on my words even though I wasn't at all. Perhaps I was speaking them too fast. I nervously shoved my hands into my hoodie pocket, my right hand earning a soft nuzzle from Axel.
"Well I'll certainly come back around to see more of you. Can I have your name?", he asked of me, his voice was soft though I could hear it perfectly in the loud bar.
"Hartley. My name is Hartley"
"Well, Hartley, I greatly look forward to seeing you next week", he said with another smile before walking off back to his group and I felt my heart slowly come back to a reasonable rhythm.
The next week came, and once again I was on stage singing another song. I had been a little let down to begin singing without seeing Armand anywhere in the bar. Though as I sang the second verse, I noticed someone moving close to the stage. And this someone seemed to clap louder than anyone else in the bar after I'd finished. He even wanted an encore! I sang one more song for him, one that I had even picked out just for him.
Have you got color in your cheeks?
Do you ever get that feelin that you can't shift the tide that sticks around like summat's in your teeth?
Ah, there's some aces up your sleeve.
Have you no idea that you're in deep, I dreamt about you nearly every night this week.
How many secrets can you keep?
Cause there's this tune I found that makes me think of you somehow when I play it on repeat
Until I fall asleep, spilling drinks on my settee.
After the encore, we both sat at a table and merely talked to one another.
"Him? Oh that was Daniel, he's a dear friend of mine. He's really more of a homebody and must be forced to come out of the house every now and then.", Armand said to me, leaning on his elbow on the table as he spoke. "So tell me about you, where have you been hiding all this time?"
"Well, I haven't really been hiding lately. I've been coming here to sing once a week and I've been in a few parts in the local theatre, though I don't have anything to brag about right now in that aspect. They pay me to help keep the stage in good shape and help create the sets and man the lighting and sound booth when I'm not performing. And I volunteer at the soup kitchen down the street once a week, as well. This city is great and all, but we turn a blind eye to the homeless here", I rambled off to him, idly stirring my drink as I spoke.
"The voice of an angel, and a heart more pure than their own...you're very unique, Hartley.", Armand said to me. I laughed, half out of nerves and the other half at feeling Axel twist around in my pocket. I put a hand inside my pocket to give the rat a little pet and the rat took the opportunity to run up my arm to my shoulder. I glanced up at Armand to see him smiling at the rat that perched on me.
"...And who is your little friend there?"
"This is Axel...he doesn't bother you, does he?", I said, wanting to pull Axel off my shoulder. I've met my fair share of people that couldn't bring themselves to accept a rat as a respectable pet.
"Oh not at all. Rats are just fine, by me. They've helped me out of a rough place many a time", he said with a sly smile.
"Yeah, same here. I had a rough time when my parents pretty much exiled me from our estate after they found out that I was gay, they wouldn't even help me find a new place to live. I struggled for a bit and got a crummy job at a pet store. But that job introduced me to my first rat, her name was Demeter and she was a complete sweetheart. But she died a few years later, god bless her little soul, and I got Axel here". I gave him a few scratches behind his ears as I spoke.
"It's terrible to hear that even in today's modern world, that people are thrown from their homes out of something so trivial.", Armand said softly. "I trust that things are better for you now, yes? If not, say the word and it's yours".
It felt surreal to sit and converse with Armand like this. Just last week I saw him as someone that was completely out of my league (though he still is) and as someone that wouldn't even take a second glance at me...and yet here I am, sitting across from him rambling on about my rats. And he was actually listening to me. He was actually looking at me. Smiling at me...even..kinda flirting with me at times.
"You bring such a passion to singing that I haven't heard in a long time. It's very refreshing, Hartley."
"Thanks...I just..sort of get lost in the moment."
"Trust me, so do I".